Hiroyuki Tomit

Hiroyuki Tomita (Japanese: 冨田洋之; born November 21, 1980) is a Japanese gymnast. Tomita won three Olympic medals at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.

Personal life

Tomita began gymnastics at the age of eight with his mother getting him started into the sport. He attended Rakunan High School and began competing in the All-Japan Highschool Games in 1996. In this first competition, he ranked 10th in the all-around. The next year saw a rise in Tomita's competition results with a 1st in the all-around. He participated in the 1997 All-Japan Junior Championships with a 9th in the all-around. Tomita continued to dominate the All-Japan Highschool Games, winning 1st in the all-around in 1998, and placing 1st in the events such as the high bar (which would later become his signature event), the parallel bars (where he would later win an Olympic medal), and the pommel horse. After graduating from Ronan High School, he attended Juntendo University. Tomita did gymnastics drills and exercises exclusively with no weight training.

2004 Olympics

In his first Olympics, Tomita led the men's team in an upset when the Japanese team captured the Olympic title for the first time since 1976, winning over the highly favored Chinese men's team. Tomita ranked 6th in the all-around. Tomita qualified for the event finals in parallel bars, rings, and pommel horse. He won a silver in the parallel bars. Tomita however continued with the competition and performed well in the last three events lined up. In the end, French gymnast Benoît Caranobe edged out Tomita for an all-around bronze by 0.175. Tomita finished 4th. In an interview, Tomita said that did not give up until the end as he had been given the opportunity to compete in the event by taking the place of teammate Koki Sakamoto, who had a better score than he did in the qualifying. Tomita's final competition as an elite gymnast was in the World Cup Final in Madrid, Spain, where the only event championships were contested with no all-around competition. Tomita competed in both the parallel bars and high bar competition. Tomita was 6th at the parallel bars because of some visible mistakes. In his final competition in the high bar, Tomita performed with his signature skills and elegance, the only obvious error he committed was when he touched his hand to the mat after his dismount. Nevertheless, he capped this final competition with a bronze medal. In February 2009, Tomita received official certification allowing him to judge gymnastic competitions.